No.81 - The Hundred and One Dalmatians

I will begin with a word of warning, never, I repeat, NEVER trust a Disney film! As we’ve previously discovered in my post about Mary Poppins, Walt Disney changed everything! The characters you thought you knew are totally different when you read the book, even the story itself can be hard to recognise once you strip back the perky animation, catchy songs and overly polished storylines. So if you’re reading this humming “Cruella De Vil” (which I am!) then stop right now! There are no jazzy tunes in this story, just a tale of bereft doggy parents and the extent of their love!  Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Dodie Smith’s The One Hundred and One Dalmatians, a classic of children's literature, not just a Disney film!

Now, I'm not criticising the Disney film, in fact it's one of my favs, but reading the book just makes you realise how many liberties Mr Disney took when he made his films. So let me start by telling you a few of the differences between the book and the beloved film.

Firstly, Perdita is not the mother of the puppies, this is instead a lovely dog called Missus. When Missus has 15 puppies and can't feed them all at once Perdita is brought in as a surrogate mother to half the pups. But her story is not a happy one. She is found starving on the side of the road, after setting out to find her puppies who have been stolen. So when Missus and Pongo's puppies are stolen too she goes through the grief all over again! You can see why Disney chose to leave this out of his film!

Secondly, the story is told mainly from the dogs point of view, in fact the humans barely even feature, and when they do they are referred to as the dogs 'pets', rather than the other way around. This is a nice touch, which gives the book a very different feel to the film. The animals in the book are cleverly anthropomorphised so that you follow their journey, and feel their emotions just as you would a group of human characters. My only complaint would be that, although written by a woman, the book is a little lacking in its portrayal of its female characters. Poor old Missus is as ditsy as they come!

One thing that doesn't differ from the film however, is the evilness of Cruella De Vil (I can't type her name without singing the song!)! She is horrid! In the book we are introduced to her long suffering husband, who is a furrier ( he makes furs), and we learn that she forces him to make furs out of anything she fancies! Unlike Cruella, he is not an evil mastermind, but stuck under the reign of his nasty wife! Another strange fact about Cruella is that she loves pepper, as one of the puppies finds out when he bites her and she tastes hot and peppery! Everything about her is vile and cruel, as her name suggests!

It turns out that Cruella is hoarding Dalmatian puppies at her ancestral home, Hell Hall. She is keeping them well fed and happy until they get big enough to be killed and skinned!! Using their own doggy communication system, the Twilight Barking (which you may remember from the film), Missus and Pongo discover that there puppies have been taken to the hall, and they set out to rescue them.... but come back with a lot more than they set out for!

This is a delightful book, and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone! The characters are beautifully written and the language and tone is in no way condescending to it's young audience. It is quite a grown up book in many ways, but the story has all the appeal of a children's classic. And what's more, there's a sequel!

Thanks for reading, L x

Next up is a collections of poems, something new to the blog. I will be looking at Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S Elliott.

The Lost Beatrix Potter Story: The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots

Last week marked a historic moment for all lovers of Beatrix Potter's classic animal tales. A new story was posthumously published, one that had lain forgotten for around 100 years! Beatrix Potter had written The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots in 1914, over 10 years after her first children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit was published, but it never became more than just a manuscript. Some suggest that the advent of the First World War may have, among other things, interrupted the completion of the Kitty story, which was found with only one illustration and here it is.

It is a charming tale about a cat who enjoys poaching! Kitty or Miss Catherine St Quintin (as she likes to call herself!) likes to don a 'gentleman's Norfolk jacket and little fur-lined boots' and brandish an air-gun at every opportunity! The story follows her as she sneaks out at night to go hunting, switching places with another black cat called Winkiepeeps, so as not to arouse the suspicions of her doting owner. Here she encounters a range of wonderfully personified characters, some a little more familiar than others! She picks up her gun from her friend Cheesebox the cat, and then accidentally shoots Mrs Tiggywinkle (thankfully she only hits her bag of washing!)! She then tries to shoot mice, crows and sheep, before coming across two naughty poaching ferrets Slimmy Jimmy and John Stoat-Ferret, who are pleasingly clad in flat-caps and waistcoats. The two ferrets are after rabbits and it is here that our famous friend Peter Rabbit makes an appearance! Kitty stalks Peter for a while, but luckily doesn't shoot him because 'he was wearing such an elegant jacket' (in true Beatrix Potter style!). The story is not yet over for Kitty however, as she soon finds herself caught in a poachers trap! How ironic! Mrs Tiggywinkle saves her and we are told that she gets away 'with the loss of one toe'! Potter has often been praised for not talking down to her readers and this clearly shows it! Children's literature critic Peter Hollindale once called Potter a 'post-fabulist naturalist', suggesting she was keen to focus on the realities of the natural world, whilst also taking inspiration from the animal fable genre. She doesn't shy away from the consequences of poaching, especially when Mrs Tiggywinkle turns up (alive) in a bag full of furs, half eaten rabbits and a cat's tail! In the end Kitty gives up poaching and establishes a life as a genteel cat, having tea parties and only associating with respectable animals.

Discovered with just the one illustration, a new illustrator had to be found in order for this little gem to be unleashed on the world! What would happen to The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots without it's trademark drawings? 

Cue national treasure Sir Quentin Blake! 

I love Quentin Blake's illustrations! From Roald Dahl's stories, to his own poetry, and even his murals for hospitals, his art is full of a playfulness and joy! I recently had the opportunity to choose one of his illustrations for an exhibition at my local art gallery. You can see my choice Parrot's Toast here! 

Now, like many people, despite my love of Blake's gorgeous illustrations I was wondering how this slightly crazy, vibrant style was going to fit with the calm and genteel style of Potter's writing. I had no need to worry! Yes, they are scratchy and full of movement, and not at all like Beatrix's delicate, soft animal drawings, but this is not a negative point by any means! You just need to look at the cover to see how well he has portrayed the slightly bizarre character of Kitty! Although strikingly different to Potter's portrayal, the slightly mad glint in Kitty's eye seems to work so well with her character! She was almost too serious before!

It's so lovely to see Potter's story interpreted in a different way. The format of the book has remained in keeping with the original stories with the words and pictures on opposite pages, like windows into this secret animal world. Blake's illustrations are fitting to the story and he has interpreted the characters we know and love extremely well, so that you feel you are looking at the same character despite style differences.

All in all it is a beautiful homage to the world and writing of Beatrix Potter. 

Thanks for reading , L x